HELP! trouble with my ears

Make sure you're equalizing properly, before you feel the pressure build up. You may have to resort to using your fingers to do this. You may be putting too much pressure on your tubes without being aware, or what seems normal to you at this point is too much, with a delayed reaction and symptoms appearing the next day as a result of the previous day's exertions.

I just use my fingers to equalize.

But don't push yourself if you're having problems clearing. It only makes things worse.

I've had ear problems in the past. It's usually one of two things for me. One I have an outer ear infection. Two I have been diving too rough and not clearing my ears fast enough. Essentially both problems involve irritation to the inner ear which cause your Eustacian tubes in the inner ear to close up and that makes clearing your ears tough to impossible while diving. To continue to dive only irritates the inner ear more and makes the problem worse. Just in case you didn't know, your outer ear is outside your eardrum. Your inner ear is everything inside your eardrum.

The solution to both problems is to stay out of the water. First problem requires ear drops, while you're out of the water. Second problem just requires time out of the water. Depending on how bad it shouldn't take more than a week or a week and a half for your ear to recover fully.

Although if the inner ear problem is really bad and isn't improving after a couple weeks that's when I get some antibiotics to fix it. Either antibiotic ear drops or strong antibiotic pills will do the trick. But you don't want to use these on a regular basis or the bacteria in your body will grow stronger and more immune to the medicine, which may cause more ear problems in the future.

so for next time.... if you think your ear troubles were from not equalizing enough fast enough the solution is to equalize more often.......... if you think it was from an outer ear infection the solution is to buy a bottle of swimmer's ear or something similar to it and squirt that in your ears after every dive to prevent an ear infection

that's my advice hope it helps.

Daniel, thanks for the education. That seems to fall in-line with what the ENT told me recently.

Ben, I'm currently going through the same issues. This past year I've often had to abort diving halfway through the days due to not being able to equalize any longer. Exact same symptoms as you've mentioned. I went to the ENT about 2 months ago and he removed large pieces of compacted wax out of each outer ear canal. When I say large, I'm talking kidney bean sized petrified garbage. I about passed out at the sight. So wrong. I was given anti-bacteria medicine for the inner ear also. I stayed out of the water for 3 weeks and then went back in. Halfway through the day I needed to abort and did not force equalizing. A bummer for sure, but a smart play. I'm not over the hump yet and believe I will have some issues the next time I go out, but will not force it. I'm hoping I find the recipe, whether it's ear drops after each dive, earlier ear equalizing during drops, or vicks under the nose. FN sucks because it has not allowed me to dive to the depth or potential that I was at last year...

My ears are the same way after a few days in the water, I just did 8 days in a row in the water diving like mad and my left ear was shot 5 days into it, but, I had to dive to finish my work. The best thing is an ibuprofen for the swelling and drops of equal amounts of alcohol/vinegar, this will dry out your ear and kill any bacteria, but, if it gets real bad simply don't dive until it gets better because you can damage your ear or get a real nasty infection, my ear was clogged to the point of not hearing in it and it sounded like I had an orchestra of flutes in it, it's getting better now.

This is a trick that I got from an old timer that was also a doctor: use some peroxide after each dive (in the evening, at home or on the boat is ok). If you don't dive for awhile, do the maintenance once a month. Warm up the peroxide a bit (microwave is fine), use a dropper and let it sit in your ear for about 5 minutes. If the ear is clogged with "stuff" you'll feel like a boil and will pull all the dirt out. In time it will take care of wax buildup, sand and all other stuff. I tried to mix it with alcohol, but I like it better straight peroxide.

Stefan